A NATION CHALLENGED: THE PRISONERS; Detainees Stage Protest at Base Over a Turban

By JAMES DAO

March 1, 2002

Scores of Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners being held at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, began a protest on Wednesday after guards removed a makeshift turban from the head of a praying prisoner, military officials said today.

Today, prisoners chanted ''God is great!'' and banged water bottles and buckets inside their chain-link cages to register their anger over the incident. Military officials said guards took no action to quell the protest, which lasted 45 minutes.

On Wednesday, 159 prisoners protested by refusing to eat lunch and 109 refused dinner, military officials said. Today, 107 would not eat breakfast and 194 declined lunch. But the number who refused to eat dinner tonight dropped to 88, officials said.

The actions were the first organized protests by the prisoners, some of whom have been at the base since Jan. 11. There are 300 prisoners at the camp, but that number is likely to increase after a prison is built.

The men appeared to be responding to an incident on Tuesday when guards ordered a prisoner who was praying in his cage to remove a turban he had fashioned from a towel or sheet, said Capt. Alan Crouch, a spokesman for the American forces running the prison camp. When the prisoner did not respond, the guards removed the turban.

Captain Crouch said the prisoners were not allowed to wear turbans because they might be used to conceal makeshift weapons. Prisoners will be issued tight-fitting prayer caps if they request it, he added.

Late tonight, Brig. Gen. Mike Lehnert, the Marine general running the detention mission, used the camp loudspeaker to tell inmates they would be allowed to wear turbans, but that authorities reserve the right to inspect them at any time.

Some prisoners said they were upset that the guards interrupted the man while he was praying. Others expressed concern about ''the uncertainty of their future,'' Captain Crouch said. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said earlier this week that some might be sent home and others might be held indefinitely.

Organizing the hunger strike would have required prisoners to communicate with each other through the chain-link fences; they are not allowed to congregate.

Vienna Colucci, program director for Amnesty International USA, said that under the Geneva Conventions, prisoners should be given complete latitude to practice their religions.

Captain Crouch said, ''Security needs take precedence over other concerns.''